World TV counting on public pressure to help it win specialty TV licences

Dan Iannuzzi doesn’t give up easily. The Toronto businessman is back before the CRTC asking for the right to launch a new specialty TV channel devoted to foreign programming, despite 12 years of delays and rejected licence applications (CCR, May 11/00). A public hearing (2001-5-1) will be held June 19 in Hull, QC. On May 8, the CRTC gazetted the most recent application by Iannuzzi’s company – World Television Network/Le Réseau Télémonde Inc (WTM), which is almost identical to an application that was denied by a majority of commissioners in September. Their main rationale was that basic cable subscribers would be forced to pay $0.30 more each month for a service with limited audience appeal. The shortage of analog capacity was also an issue. The first time the CRTC turned down WTM’s application was in 1992. No other applicant has tried for so long for a specialty licence. WTM’s senior VP and COO, Kerry Johnston, says last year’s decision by the CRTC upset a lot of supporters. "People all across the country, in all kinds of positions, took strong exception to the last decision. We were overwhelmed by the amount of support and the anger that was expressed," he told CCR. WTM executives are so confident that public support is on their side that they’ve reapplied for guaranteed carriage on both analog and digital. They’re no longer asking for basic carriage, but they have requested dual status on the upper analog tiers for the French and English versions of the channel, as well as a digital licence. They’re hoping to launch the channels July 1, 2002. "The key concern in the last CRTC decision was the question of carriage, so we have modified the carriage," says Johnston. "Instead of asking for basic, we’ve asked for dual status, one in English and one in French, and digital for the English service in Quebec, and for the French service outside of Quebec." Popular appeal and broad public support may not be enough, however, to convince the CRTC to license another analog channel. For every new analog channel that’s launched, that’s capacity for four-to-six digital channels that will no longer be available. WTM’s previous applications were opposed by Canada’s cable and broadcasting associations, as well as ethnic specialty channels. Johnston says CRTC staff suggested that WTM should apply for a digital specialty licence. "We explained that digital (Category) one doesn’t work financially," he says. "You can’t have this kind of complex service and run it with a limited number of subscribers. The day that there are enough subscribers out there in digital, we will be quite prepared to move to digital." Instead, WTM wants to launch an analog English version of its channel and the digital French equivalent in markets outside of Quebec. If approved, Quebec distributors would be required to carry the French version of the service on analog, and the English version on digital. WTM has proposed a wholesale rate of $0.35 per subscriber, which is five cents higher than the proposed rate the CRTC said was too high in its previous application. Martine Vallee, the CRTC’s director of Discretionary Services & Social Policy, says WTM isn’t technically applying for a Category 1 digital licence, although there are obvious similarities. "It’s like our minority language policy," she explains. In that policy, she says the larger systems in an English market are required to carry French-language specialty channels on digital. "There is no specific label for a mandatory digital service," she adds. WTM has offered to carry a minimum of 40 per cent Canadian programming in the first two years, rising to 60 per cent in years six and seven. WTM’s service would feature foreign-language programming with subtitles. The schedule would include news, public affairs, film and entertainment programming from around the world. "We will bring in more support and we will demonstrate once again that this service is in the national public interest, that it’s totally unique, that it’s not a duplication of services," says Johnston.The deadline for written interventions to the CRTC is May 30.

World TV counting on public pressure to help it win specialty TV licences

News | 05/10/2001 4:00 am EDT

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